Hit 1,000 deep sky objects logged in my photo archive

I was just messing around with my folder structure last night and noticed my photo count. I've been shooting with a basic DSLR and a tracking mount for about three years now. 1,000 individual targets from galaxies to globular clusters. I never set that as a goal, it just happened from going out every clear night. Has anyone else accidentally passed a big milestone like that in their own collection?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameron7708d ago

1,000 targets with just a DSLR and a tracker? That is genuinely hard to believe, I've been doing this for about six years with a dedicated astro camera and I'm barely past 500. You must have some seriously dark skies or a crazy good shooting routine to bag that many without getting burned out.

maxhart7d ago

...and of course I've also managed to bag about 800 out-of-focus, trailed versions of the same ones before I finally learned how to use a Bahtinov mask. For me, it's the burnout that's the bigger enemy. I've got a cheapo DSLR and a Star Adventurer setup in a Bortle 6 zone, but I've started just shooting one or two targets a month and really stacking the hours. It's amazing how much you can actually pull out of a mediocre shot when you have 6 hours of integration time instead of the usual "grab and run" 45 minutes.